Sick of the Limelight?
by Megaroxalways
Summary: Megamind has been Metro City's superhero for less than a year and a half, and already, someone is stirring up trouble. But not trouble of the normal kind-trouble with his old logo all over it. How will the citizens of Metro City respond, and how will Megamind, Roxanne, and Minion prove his innocence? Rated T for severe injuries in later chapters. Prologue 2-3 months before story.
1. Prologue

Roxanne's eyes burned as she strained to not only keep them open, but to see through the nighttime fog that was so common for the Metro City Suburbs and focus on the road. It was unusually thick tonight, though she suspected it might be normal for around two o'clock in the morning, and that it was accustomed to being left undisturbed. She didn't bother to take in the residential scene around her, letting her mind float instead of focusing on the boarded up houses and graffiti-ed fences. Her right hand drifted to her mouth instinctively to cover up a yawn, and just as lazily wandered down to the Starbucks coffee cup in the cup holder by her side. She knew that a call from Minion at two in the morning telling her to get to the scene of the battle and _now_ meant trouble, but that didn't mean she wasn't exhausted.

"In a quarter of a mile, your destination will be on the left," said her GPS app nonchalantly.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that," she muttered, not unaware of the sirens that were close enough to find their way through her closed windows. Soon after, the flashing red, white, and blue lights clustered around a driveway accompanied their matching sounds, and Roxanne pulled her red Volkswagen bug as close as she could and threw it into park.

Roxanne took another bracing gulp of coffee, and stepped out into the hectic world around her. The paramedics rushing people on stretchers into ambulances and policemen fighting the stray criminal into handcuffs woke her up more suddenly than she would've liked. She put a hand to the roof of her car and closed her eyes to steady herself for a moment, forcing herself into her reporter's mindset. As long as she was there, nothing could overwhelm her. Just find Megamind, she told herself. Why else could Minion have called her there?

She shut the car door vigorously, determined to put her best foot forward. She strode past the police tape line with no need for qualifications beyond her status as the city's star reporter, and of course, its hero's girlfriend. She found that the only crowd of people that wouldn't let her through were her fellow reporters. They were filling the air with buzzing questions, all of them so loud she couldn't make out what any one of them was talking about. She'd just started to elbow her way past Stephanie from channel 12 when she felt a hand grip her arm. Normally, she'd be startled by this, but the hand that happened to have taken hold of her was large and metal and not at all using a harsh grip.

She turned to face Minion, any hint of a smile that the early morning had not already stolen from her gone at the sight of his face. He was treading water anxiously, eyes and sometimes his whole body moving this way and that in his fish tank.

"What's wrong?" She said without thinking, feeling anxious herself. "Is he hurt?"

"Not at all, no!" Minion hurried, still not focusing in one spot. "Well, he's mostly not hurt. Well, he's not _badly_ hurt," he continued, releasing her arm to motion around with his hands. Then he stopped, glanced around quickly, and pulled her farther away from the hubbub of the reporters.

"The press is… pushy, at this hour of the morning, it would seem," Minion all but whispered, leaning in close to Roxanne. "A cameraman got past the police tape at one point during the fight and threw Sir off bad enough that he took a dangerously hard blow to the head. I was really worried about him; that's when I called you," the words raced out of his mouth like he'd been holding them in for hours.

Roxanne could feel herself getting mad. There was a standard to keep up as a news crew, what on earth were they thinking? "It wasn't one of _my_ camera men, was it?" she said through gritted teeth, glaring over at the crowd to see who was on-duty.

"I don't remember, I just-"

"WHAT is WRONG with all of you?!" Megamind's voice shouted above the others, throwing the crowd of reporters and camera men into relative silence and causing Minion's and Roxanne's heads to jerk in his direction.

"That doesn't bode well," Roxanne muttered, craning her neck to try and see her boyfriend.

"The very LEAST you could do is show some respect for what's happening around you! Jeopardizing your lives, my life, the lives of this whole CITY to get a better - a better _camera angle_ is just plain pathetic!" Gasps and small shouts sounded from the crowd as it began to part, and soon Roxanne and Minion could see that Megamind had ripped through a part of the police tape and was stalking past all of them. Camera men were quick to fill the space the crowd had made behind Megamind a moment before, and as if sensing it, he spun around to face them one more time.

In a loud, but seething tone he all but growled, "I can see why Metro Man got so SICK of all of you."


	2. Chapter 1

The familiar dim, red glow of Roxanne and Megamind's favorite restaurant surrounded them, just like it always did on the last Friday of the month. Megamind fought to ensure that these date nights were only interrupted or called off by matters of utmost importance - which is why he only allowed Minion to contact him during them. If anything became too much for him and the Brain Bots to handle, Minion knew where Megamind was.

This allowed Megamind to enjoy what had become his favorite activity quite some time ago: talking and laughing with the most perfect woman he'd ever laid eyes on. He could watch her simply go over the menu the way she was doing now for hours. Her gorgeous sapphire eyes flitted this way and that, examining every item thoroughly and pretending she wouldn't order the same pasta dish she always did. Her forehead slightly tightened in concentration, her delicate hand coming up and sweeping her hair out of her face - he didn't always understand her, fully, but he knew one thing for certain: he loved every bit of her.

It must have become increasingly clear that he had abandoned his menu several minutes ago in favor of looking at Roxanne over the top of hers, because without warning, a smirk grew on the edges of her mouth and her eyes flew up to meet his. Startled, Megamind looked down at his own menu hurriedly, causing Roxanne's mischievous smirk to grow into a laugh. He couldn't help it; her laugh was his favorite sound in the world, and without being able to resist, he looked back up at her and smiled in spite of himself. She was beaming, and he was more than happy to bask in her glow.

"You know, I don't spend time with you just so you can be afraid to look at me," she said playfully once she had stopped laughing.

"Is that so, Miss Ritchi?" he countered, adopting his own smirk and ignoring the waiter pouring them white wine. "Then why, prey tell, do you spend time with me?"

A surge of triumph coursed through him as he got exactly what he wanted: a disbelieving and mildly disapproving face from the woman sitting across him. He felt his smile go wider still as she looked to be preparing a rant in her mind.

But instead, she reached across the table and took hold of his hand, sending all sorts of different surges through him. His smirk faded into a genuine smile, and he sheepishly lifted his eyes to meet hers.

"Megamind, I spend time with you because I love you," she said simply, never having looked more serious and sincere in her life. "And you know that, you big goof." Her gorgeous smile reappeared, and he smiled affectionately back without letting go of her hand.

"Well," he said, fiddling with the ring on her finger absentmindedly, "I should hope that this was the case. Otherwise you answered my question the other night very poorly."

"Good thing I know I gave you the right answer," She replied, reaching for her wine glass with her other hand. She took a drink, looking thoughtful, and when she set her glass down she looked at the ring on her hand as though studying it.

Megamind couldn't blame her; he had done this often before proposing. He had read that diamonds were the traditional engagement ring stone, so that's what he made the large middle gem. But he also took into consideration that he and Roxanne were anything but traditional, and so he added two small blue diamonds on either side of the larger stone. He'd taken it out of the box and looked at it several times, wondering what she would say when he asked. The longer he had thought about it, the less he was sure that she even wanted to get married in general, and much less to him. There were several times when Minion had to talk him down from a panic about the subject, and it was Minion who eventually talked Megamind into asking Roxanne when he did. Even now his mind spun about what she was thinking as she looked at their hands intertwined. Was she regretting her 'yes'? She had just said, of course, that she knew she'd made the right decision, and he'd really been trying to listen more to people than to the fears in his head. So he clung to what Roxanne had said as truth, fighting against anything in his head that said otherwise.

The waiter returned to their table and took their orders; Roxanne requesting her usual stuffed raviolis, and Megamind venturing out to try a sophisticated Japanese dish.

They ate and drank for the remainder of the evening, avoiding topics of conversations that involved Megamind's hero work and Roxanne's job as the city's top reporter. That's another thing that these particular date nights were reserved for: a total escape from work. The topics strayed instead towards Megamind's most recent inventing endeavors and Roxanne's latest read. They meandered through favorite books in general, and Megamind's disgust of how aliens were portrayed in modern literature.

Roxanne put her arm in his as they stood to leave the restaurant and they stepped out into the light snowfall together.

"I cannot believe I forgot that umbrella," Megamind grumbled, pulling his coat tighter around his sides. Roxanne chuckled at him and buried her hands in her pockets and her head into his shoulder, and they made for the parking garage that was just around the corner.

They didn't even make it to the corner, however. Before they could get more than twenty paces from the door of the restaurant, a shrill, frantic beeping rang out in the winter air, and as Megamind turned his head to look at what was going on, an explosion erupted in the window of the restaurant they were just in. Shattered glass was sent everywhere, and instinctively, Megamind turned his head away and put himself between Roxanne and the explosion, covering her head in his hands.

The explosion was small, but the chaos was not. People were screaming and calling to people who were presumably still inside the smoke, and others were flooding out what was left of the door to the restaurant. Megamind spun around as soon as he was sure the explosion was over, and sprung into action. He began directing people to safety and soon, Roxanne was by his side, calling ambulances in one breath and calming down a frightened child looking for his mother in the other.

Megamind turned towards the restaurant, intending to go inside and ensure that everyone was getting out safely. But instead, a metal glint in the remainder of the window sill caught his eye, and he gravitated towards it. As he got closer, he fought to see through the smoke, and ended up coughing in his arm several times. When he was finally close enough to pick the metal object up, however, it was heavier than he expected. He used his sleeve to wipe away whatever smoke stains he could, discovering that it was the bomb that had been set off. He flipped it over in his hands, and almost dropped it when he saw the design that somehow made it through the explosion. Plastered on the front of the bomb in his own signature blue was his old super villain logo.

His brain short-circuited. What kind of a person would do this? He scrambled to tuck it into his coat pocket before anyone could see, and turned around to face the authorities that had arrived without him noticing, despite their blaring sirens. The gears in his mind churned restlessly as he looked for Roxanne, and instead found a police officer that was too close for comfort.

He was only about two feet away from Megamind, and Megamind didn't recognize his face. He made an effort to become acquainted with all the police officers Metro City hired, and in light of this anomaly his furrowed brow deepened.

The officer stepped closer to Megamind and jotted something down quickly before looking up at him.

"Hello Megamind. I'm going to need to ask you some questions…" he trailed off as though remembering something and scribbled something down on his notepad. Megamind rolled his eyes internally. An amateur.

"We'll tell you anything you need to know," Roxanne said in her chipper reporter voice, linking her arm through Megamind's again and shooting him a look that said _I know something's bothering you_.

The officer looked up again, his expression screaming that he was not at all impressed by Roxanne appearing on the scene. He turned back to Megamind.

"You are the resident superhero to Metro City, yes?" he drawled.

"…Yes?" Megamind replied, caught somewhere between disbelief and scoffing.

"But wasn't it less than a year and a half ago that you were Metro City's resident super villain?" he retorted, placing emphasis on the 'villain' part.

Megamind's jaw dropped as a way of reply. Countless replies flew through his mind, and he was trying to settle on one to use when Roxanne stepped in for him.

"I'm sorry, but what exactly does that have to do with anything?" she asked, glaring at the officer.

The officer rolled his eyes, making no attempt to hide it from the people standing in front of him, and slowly turned his head to face Roxanne.

"Ma'am, I am an officer of the law, and we don't take explosions lightly, especially when a former criminal who had several life sentences to his name was at the scene of the crime. Now, I don't expect TV's pretty face to understand any of that, but that's just the way it is." Megamind saw Roxanne's face go hot and felt his doing the same as the officer wrote something down in his notebook.

"Don't you _dare_ talk to Miss Ritchi like that again," Megamind hissed, clutching her arm tighter. "I believe that's the end of this interrogation."

Megamind and Roxanne began to walk off in the direction of the parking garage with the officer calling after them.

"I'm sure the station will be in touch about this!" he shouted.

Megamind gritted his teeth and trudged though the still-falling snow, fighting every instinct in his body that told him to set the clueless new officer straight. They rounded the corner in silence.

"Don't listen to him. He's new and cocky and wants to prove himself. I see it all the time at the station," Roxanne said once they were out of earshot, face still blotchy from embarrassment.

"That's not my biggest concern," he muttered, thrusting his hand into his coat pocket and running his fingers over the remains of the bomb. Only one thought echoed in his mind: how much had the officer seen?


	3. Chapter 2

"Did I not _just_ tell you that this woman was clearly in hysterics? That didn't happen, Rob. No, none of this can go in the article!" Roxanne sighed in frustration as she paced in the formerly-evil-lair. Megamind focused on the clicking and clacking of her heels on the floor to ground him, confident that this was the only thing keeping him form spiraling into a panic attack.

He was seated on the end of the couch closest to Minion's over-sized arm chair (which still barely fit his large, bulky frame) where Minion was sitting now. Both aliens' eyes were trained on the small, metallic remains of the bomb that Megamind had salvaged from the restaurant earlier that evening. Every once in a while, Minion would nervously glance at Megamind, who had yet to move. He and Roxanne entered the lair with her already on the phone and him looking worried. When he was sure Roxanne was fully occupied with her conversation, he pulled the object out of his pocket and set it on the table without a word before sinking into the couch and resting his chin on the backs of his folded hands.

"I don't know what to say, Sir," Minion started timidly, about five minutes into the staring contest between Megamind and the bomb. "I would say that it was uncollected from a defective plot-"

"But I hardly ever used bombs," Megamind finished, "And they were never placed around civilians." He felt his heart rate increase as his mind began to wonder if that new police officer would believe that he barely used bombs. Would he even give Megamind the chance to defend himself? Surely the officer didn't already have enough sway to really affect him, but what if he turned to the media? What would the people who so readily hated him in years past think then?

 _Breathe_ , he thought, in a desperate attempt to reclaim control of his brain space. He shut his eyes tightly and focused on the sounds around him again: _click clack, click clack_. If worst really came to worst, he knew he had the Warden on his side. And the media wasn't going to go completely against him, after all. Not with Roxanne having monopoly over the other reporters.

"…Sir?" Minion ventured, growing more concerned the longer Megamind sat there with his eyes squeezed shut.

Megamind opened his eyes wearily, glanced at Minion, and then rubbed his eyes with a groan.

"I just don't know, Minion," he said, slouching backwards into the couch cushions. "Forget who did it, I don't even know _how_ they did it. All of my technology is locked away here."

"And I was just doing the rounds about the time you said this exploded, Sir. Everything was in order. Nothing misplaced or broken into," Minion reported happily. His smile receded, however, when this seemed to only confuse Megamind more.

"Then how, Minion?" he demanded, springing to his feet and beginning to pace himself.

Minion began to twiddle his metal thumbs. "Well, Sir, it could be someone else's technology," he answered hesitantly. "Whoever it was could've just put your old logo on it."

Megamind stopped mid-pace and considered it. He hadn't thought of this before, of course, he'd just assumed that they'd somehow stolen his tech. Hopeful that this could solve at least one piece of the confusion, he scooped up the bomb and inspected it more closely.

Minion stood up now as well, and looked over Megamind's shoulder as he held the bomb with the logo side facing them. Megamind ran his thumb over the electric blue logo thoughtfully before huffing and tossing it over his shoulder, not realizing that Minion was right there and was now scrambling to catch it.

"It's no good, Minion. I always ensured that the logo was engraved and _then_ painted on. Unless we are working with an impeccable copycat, this is stolen technology," he all but threw himself back onto the couch, rubbing his temples, trying to stop his headache in vain. The constant noise of Roxanne arguing with her superior and her shoes hitting the concrete was no longer comforting, and he was trying hard not to lose his mind.

Minion, however, wasn't listening. Something inside the bomb's metal exoskeleton had caught his eye. He stuck his pinky finger into the half of the bomb that had been blown off and guided it towards the yellowed and charred piece of what turned out to be paper, and pulled it out into the light. "Sir? You're going to want to see this."

Megamind raised an eyebrow and glanced at him before slowly standing up and coming alongside his friend. What Minion held in his hand was a battered and burned slip of paper, of which only half remained, and only that much because it appeared to have been laminated at one time. Megamind snatched the paper away from Minion, with Minion's cry to be careful with it barely even registering in his ears. The part that could be read stated: _Property of the Metro City: Battle Ground Through the Ages Museum_.

This particular museum was founded by Mr. And Mrs. Scott shortly after Megamind became Metro City's hero. They began planning for it as soon as their son, Wayne Scott, otherwise known as Metro Man, had 'died'. It focused on both the battles that had taken place before Metro City was erected, such as soldiers being mustered from the little village that was once there to join the forces for the revolutionary war, and the battles that Metro Man and Megamind had regularly engaged in. Unfortunately, Megamind thought, everyone let the ridiculous stories of far-fetched 'involvement' in America's wars slide, because Mrs. Scott had always been a history buff. Roxanne and Megamind agreed that it was a guise for keeping a museum that had at least something dedicated to their son in existence.

The only time Megamind had visited the place had been at the grand opening, where he had endured undercutting comments and general hatred from the Scotts, who didn't want him there in the least. Which was completely understandable, considering that in their minds he had killed their son. But he came out of the event incredibly frustrated that they couldn't at least put on a face of kindness on for the sake of the mayor, who was the one that invited Megamind to the opening in the first place. In fact, it had been the mayor who had been playing liaison between Megamind and the Scotts while trying to arrange for Megamind to donate some tokens of different battles he and Metro Man fought for the museum. Megamind was happy to do so, but happier that he didn't have to directly deal with the Scotts themselves. He was glad to hear that just two weeks of living in a small apartment in the city, seeing as their old mansion had been converted into the museum, the Scotts decided to move down to Florida into a home of a size that they were more accustomed to.

Megamind looked up at Minion, but couldn't quite see him through the gears turning behind his eyes. It all made sense! Anyone who knew anything knew that Megamind's lair was incredibly well-guarded, and that with the Brain Bots on patrol at all hours, there was no way of getting in undetected without months of planning. So they took the easy way out, and got what they needed by visiting that horrible museum!

"…Sir?"

Megamind was pulled back to the present by the voice of his friend, and grabbed either side of Minion's tank with little regard for the paper in his hands. It went flying as he exclaimed, "Minion, you fantastic fish, you!"

Minion smiled broadly in response. "You've figured out who did this, Sir?"

"No, Minion. We're far from that." Megamind stooped down and delicately picked up the fragile piece of paper. He then tucked it back into the bomb that Minion was still holding and took it into his own hands. "But now we know where to start!" he finished, beaming up at his friend once more.

Megamind spun away from Minion and began pacing again, one hand holding the half-demolished, silvery bomb with the other gesturing decisively as he spoke. "We'll search the museum first thing tomorrow." He said, both informing Minion and working to formulate a plan for himself.

Minion frowned. "Not while Miss Ritchi is at work, Sir? I suppose I assumed that you would want this all kept from her."

It was Megamind's turn to frown. He had, of course, been considering keeping all this from Roxanne. Waiting until she went to work to investigate would be a part of that, since she usually dropped by the lair in the mornings if she wasn't running late. After all, he didn't want to burden her with the obvious concern that the information of a copycat brought, much less the struggle she would face debating whether to include all of this in her reports. But now that he realized they were dealing with someone reckless enough to break into city property and not smart or calculating enough to make his own copycat devices, he made up his mind quickly.

"No, I don't think that's an option any more, Minion. I'll have to tell her so I can try and convince her to let me send some safety measures with her."

"Safety measures for what?"

Megamind turned to face her, standing behind the couch and smiling at him, smacking himself internally. Fantastic. This was _not_ how he wanted this conversation to start.

Roxanne's hair was slightly out of place, a sign that told Megamind that she'd been running her free hand through it often during her phone conversation. She was lower than eye level with him now; she'd kicked off her heels at some point. She looked as tired and as frustrated as he felt, but she had yet to lose the spark of determination in her eyes. She was beautiful.

Megamind shifted his gaze down to the remains of the bomb in his hands, fighting to formulate words. How could he tell her that she was in danger, and he didn't know what to do?

"Why don't you come sit, and we can talk?" Roxanne offered softly, now curled up on the couch next to where Megmaind usually sat. He could hear the openness and comfort in her voice, but a twinge of concern made its way to his ears as well.

He smiled a weak smile in response to the one she wore and made his way over to the couch. He sat close to her, but the piece of metal in his hands once again held his gaze.

They sat in silence for what must have been five minutes. Megamind tried to focus his energy on verbalizing his thoughts, but it insisted on occupying itself with every distraction the room had to offer, from Minion slipping out of the space to a stray Brain Bot that whizzed by. His thoughts ran in circles after one another, getting nowhere. _This isn't this hard,_ he thought bitterly. Why couldn't he just talk like a normal person? Roxanne is right there, waiting for him to say something, and all he can do is sit here like a mute idiot -

Roxanne reached out and put a hand on his arm, startling him out of his spinning thoughts.

"Hey," She said with the same soft tone from earlier. He peeled his eyes away from the bomb to meet her dazzling blue ones. If there was a word for a combination of feeling so incredibly loved and so incredibly useless, he was feeling it. Her eyes never flickered in kindness and openness, even when they flitted down to the object in his hands.

"Would it make things easier if I asked questions and you just had to answer?" She asked, now wholly focused back on his eyes. He felt something shift in his chest; how did she always know just what he needed when he couldn't verbalize a thing?

Megamind nodded, and without a hint of accusation or anger in her voice, she said, "What's in your hands?"

He swallowed hard and sorted through everything he wanted to say to find the answer to her question. They'd done this before with other circumstances, and Megamind knew that she would be willing to let him sit and form words for as long as he needed, but this time felt different. He wanted to answer her as quickly as his mind would allow. She deserved that.

"It's what's left of the bomb that went off as we left the restaurant earlier," he choked out.

"Why did you bring it back with you?" She asked, confusion mildly knotting her brow.

For an answer, he turned the bomb over in his hands to expose the side that bore his old super-villain logo.

He felt Roxanne tense at his side. He glanced up at her face and saw her mouth open and close several times, no doubt trying to decide on her next question. She finally pursed her lips and ran her left hand through her hair, and looked back at his eyes.

"What does this mean?"

He paused. He started to tell her that it certainly wasn't one of his - but he stopped short. She knew that. _She doesn't think the worst of you_ , he chided himself. He had told her that months ago after he'd stumbled over his words, as usual. It was still taking some getting used to, but he was seeing progress in himself.

"It means, that for one reason or another, someone wants it to look like - like _I_ did this." He waved his hand vaguely over the half-demolished bomb at the end of his statement. The deflated, defeated feeling returned with vigor.

Roxanne, however, hadn't lost her drive. Not yet. "Where do we start?"

His hands turned over the bomb once again and his fingers delicately reached inside and retrieved the tag from the wrecked inner workings. Handing it to her, he said, "There's a place to start, but that's all I have at the moment. I can't think clearly enough to try and identify anyone who would want to frame me-" he stopped, reconsidering. "That is, I don't know who would want to do this _and_ who would be out of jail to do so."

Roxanne just nodded, listening.

He sighed. "All I do know is that we're dealing with someone who is smart enough to get past the city's security systems, let alone reckless enough to break into city property." He met her eyes once more. "That leaves me worried about what they'll do next."

Roxanne gazed back at him, taking it all in.

"And to make it all worse, I'm stuck wondering if that police officer we were talking to saw the bomb." He grimaced, fighting his mind once again for control over the anxious tendencies that came with that thought.

"That's a possibility," she agreed, worry creeping into her voice again. "But he had to be knew, if you didn't know him, right? That means his word isn't worth much yet," she reasoned.

"Not with his superiors, no, but what about the press?" Images of old headlines centered around his villainy flashed in front of his vision, followed by new headlines declaring him to be a false hero after all. He could see the cameras and microphones with operators demanding answers to their questions, the city filling an official investigation of him, the Warden's disappointed face -

"Megamind," Roxanne called gently, causing his vision to snap back to the couch where he sat; back to Roxanne sitting next to him.

She cupped one of her hands around one of his that was holding the bomb in his lap and placed the slip of paper back inside before pulling on his hands just enough to get them away from the deformed piece of metal and intertwine their fingers. Megamind watched her hands, focusing on calming down his breathing.

"Look at me?" She said, making sure it was a question and not a command. He obeyed, nevertheless. "If he's able to get to any of the press, it'll be the cheap, garbage magazines that no one trusts anyways. I doubt he'll make it any further than those. No one who matters will believe him over you with only one supposed incident. And there's no way I'll allow KMCP to hear him out. We're in this together, remember?" She smiled softly.

Her smile proved contagious. Megamind contented himself with sitting and smiling with his fiancee for just a moment, forcing his worries to the back of his mind.

The moment ended without notice, when Roxanne broke the silence. She was just as gentle as she had been all night, but he found he wanted his moment back the second it was gone.

"So what's next?" She asked, determination thick in her voice.

"Well," he began, gathering his thoughts. "I need to go see what I can find at the museum the bomb came from. But I don't want you going to work without protection…"

"I have my watch that calls the Brain Bots," she responded. "I'll make sure I'm wearing it tomorrow. Okay?"

Megamind's brow furrowed. "I don't know that the Brain Bots will be enough," he mumbled more to himself than her.

"What else would you want to do," she started, a laugh nipping on the edges of her voice, "escort me at work?"

"Well…" he said, gears spinning in his mind once again. "Minion and I could afford to wait to examine the museum. That could work…"

Roxanne's eyebrows shot up. "Megamind, I was joking," she spit out quickly.

"Oh, yes, of course," He corrected himself, cheekbones and ears going slightly violet. She laughed lightly, and beamed at him once more, but he remained unsatisfied with just the communication watch she'd assured him she'd wear.

Roxanne released one of his hands and pulled her phone from her back pocket, glancing at the time. "It's getting late, Megamind. I should probably go." She leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, turning him more violet, but also returning a smile to his face. "I love you," she said when he turned to meet her eyes.

"I love you too," he replied, leaning in and stealing a kiss of his own. Roxanne smiled into the kiss, happy to be slightly delayed in leaving. After a moment she stood up and wandered around the couch to find where she'd left her shoes.

"How did your phone call go?" Megamind called from where he sat, realizing that he hadn't asked her yet.

Roxanne huffed before answering. "Rob was being annoying again. I swear he has no clue how to filter through what everyone says and find the truth. It's even more of a nightmare when I didn't witness whatever happened so I can set him straight."

Megamind smiled softly. How was she so perfect, even when she ranted?

"Good night, Minion!" she called loudly.

"Good night, Miss Ritchi!" he yelled back cheerily.

"I love you, Megamind," she repeated, smile evident in her voice.

"I love you too," Megamind replied, turning to smile at her. She smiled back, and headed towards the garage. A moment later he heard the engine of her beetle start up, and he sighed as he heard her drive away.

He turned back to the mangled bomb in his lap. He flipped it over and looked at the inner workings of it for the first time. He recognized it, of course, as it was his design. But that was the curious part; it wasn't a remotely activated device. This was meant to be more of a grenade that he kept on his person, in case he needed a distraction for Metro Man for a moment.

His head jerked up, thoughts spinning harder and faster than ever.

 _Someone on the scene did this?_


	4. Chapter 3

The harsh beeping of Roxanne's alarm clock grew steadily louder, but despite its best efforts, it took a solid two minutes before it elicited anything more than a groan from Roxanne. She finally huffed from where her head was buried in her pillows and threw her covers off, immediately regretting her choice of a tank top and biking shorts for bed clothes. Shivering, she pulled herself up and fumbled her way over to her shrieking alarm clock that sat on her dresser.

"Take that," she mumbled sleepily, jabbing the snooze button. She turned and nearly tripped on the heels she'd worn on her date with Megamind the night before, but nothing could stop her from returning to her bed now. She had only been collapsed on the mattress for a few moments when the telltale crash of shattering glass rang out from somewhere beyond her bedroom door.

Roxanne's eyes flew open, and her thoughts flew to life with them. Who was in her apartment? Why were they there? What did they break? _Who was in her apartment_?

Alright, think, she demanded of herself. The crash wasn't large enough or long enough to suggest that it was her balcony door that broke. _At least I have that going for me_. Her brain worked on overdrive as she sat up and scanned her room, eventually landing on the baseball bat she kept by the door.

She sat herself upright and listened for another moment, rewarded only with silence. Sucking in a deep breath to calm herself, she swung her legs over the side of the bed as quietly as possible. She stood and began working her way towards the door; every footfall, heartbeat, and minute sound ringing in her ears while her mind cried _too loud, too loud_!

Roxanne picked up the wooden bat that rested next to her door with sweating hands. She cracked open the door just enough for her to see down the hallway, noting that the broken glass was past the hallway and to the right. So it had come from the kitchen, then. She clenched her eyes shut, gripped the bat tighter than before, and crept out into the hallway.

Seconds passed like hours as Roxanne focused on silently putting one foot in front of the other to make her way down the hall. Her arms already ached from being so tense while holding the bat above her head, ready to swing. Nervous sweat dripped down her nose as she heard a cabinet door slam shut, followed by a frustrated _bowg_.

Roxanne's brow furrowed. A Brain Bot? She lowered the bat and hurried towards the kitchen, feeling too stupid to remember there was broken glass on the floor. The hovering Brain Bot had just come into view when she stepped on a larger chunk of glass at just the wrong angle, lodging it in her flesh and immediately sending blood pooling on the floor.

Roxanne cried out in pain, dropped the bat, and effectively startled the Brain Bot into whizzing around and dropping the flowers it had been holding. It flew over to her, letting out a series of panicked _bowgs_.

"It's alright, I'm fine, I'm fine," She tried to console the Bot while wincing. It wasn't convinced. She looked around her kitchen and noticed that the open cabinet was the one that held her vases and other rarely used containers. Despite the pain and mild shock of the situation, she began to smile affectionately as her brain fully registered the flowers that the Brain Bot had brought to her for the first time. She saw now, as they were scattered on the floor amid the glass shards, that they were her favorite, vibrant combination: sunflowers and roses.

She turned her smile towards the frantic Brain Bot. "Thank you for bringing these to me," she said, still not calming it completely. "It's okay. About the glass I mean. It's not a big deal," She added. Even through it's mechanical features, Roxanne could see the lingering concern that so perfectly mirrored Megamind's own. Despite the fact that the Brain Bot's facial features were mainly comprised of their eye stalks, this one seemed to carry the same expression Megamind had when she was hurt. She didn't know how instilling that much of yourself into a robot was possible, but with Megamind, she didn't doubt it.

"Bring me a bar stool?" she requested. The Bot obeyed and brought one of the stools from the island close enough for her to sit. After taking a minute to get herself on the stool without the support of her right foot, she brought her foot up to her lap, trying to ignore the Brain Bot hovering over her head. She took a shaky breath and focused in on the piece of glass in her foot and not the blood around it. As steadily and as quietly as she could, she pulled it out of her foot. Immediately her shoulders relaxed despite the pounding pain in her foot, and the Brain Bot plucked the bloodied glass from her hand and hurried to pick up the others. Roxanne tried her best not to laugh as the Bot would add one shard of glass to its small hand and another would fall.

"I think the broom would work better," she called to the struggling Bot, which promptly dropped the little glass left in its hands and spun around to face her. Nodding her head to the left, she said, "It's in the closet over there."

The Brain Bot gave an appreciative _bowg_ and flew off to the door Roxanne had indicated. She took a deep breath, and looked down the hallway. Her foot throbbed, insisting that the bathroom might as well have been miles away. But it didn't matter, she reminded herself. That's where all her medical supplies were, so that's where she was going. She lowered her feet onto the floor, watching vigilantly for pieces of glass, and hobbled her way out of the kitchen and down to the hallway. Her right foot stuck to the floor with every step. She finally reached the bathroom door, leaned on the doorknob, and allowed herself to stand mostly on her left foot, catching her breath.

" _Bowg?"_ The Bot called from behind her in the kitchen. She turned her head to face it, hesitating instead of answering. Should she tell it that you don't hold a broom like a baby, or wear a dustpan on your head? She decided against it. It was smart; it would figure it out sooner or later. "I'm good." She answered. Satisfied, it tried to fly around the corner, forgetting that the broom was much wider than itself. The broom hit the wall with a loud _crack_ and Roxanne couldn't help but laugh while the Bot scrambled to fix its mistake, sending the dustpan flying off its head in the process.

Eventually Roxanne made it into the bathroom, sitting on the closed toilet as soon as she could. Her foot still throbbed while she searched the cabinet over the toilet for the spool of bandages she kept. She vowed to herself to never bury them all the way in the back of the cabinet again as she felt her fingertips just brush the out-of-reach bandages. After fumbling around for another moment and being thankful that no one was there to witness her knock a pill bottle onto her head, she had the bandages in hand and turned her attention to her foot.

Roxanne grabbed some toilet paper and wiped away the excess blood from the sole of her foot, revealing a cut that was a whole lot smaller than it felt like it should be. She opened up a drawer in the vanity and pulled out some ointment cream. She dabbed some directly on the opening before wrapping the bandage around her foot, doing so a few extra times for good measure.

As a test, she stood up and tried to see how much weight she could now comfortable put on it. It wasn't much, but it was better than it had been.

She spent the next half hour trying to get ready for her day as normally as possible. A shower was out of the question thanks to her bandage, but she turned to her favorite dry shampoo brand to freshen up her hair instead. She buzzed through her best camera-ready 'natural' look (which she'd come to find was a huge contradiction - she must've used twenty products to achieve it) as quickly as she could, and cleaned up the bloody footprints on her white-tiled floor, hoping it hadn't yet sat long enough to stain. In her mind she planned out what she would wear, particularly on her feet. She remembered accidentally purchasing a pair of shoes that were a size too big during the frenzy of Black Friday; perhaps she could the right shoe of that pair and the left shoe of the matching replacement pair she grumpily bought when the clerk told her there were no exchanges or refunds for Black Friday purchases.

By the time she stepped out into the hallway, her limp had lessened significantly. She looked around for the Brain Bot, but instead of finding it, she noticed that the bloody footprints that she was expecting to have to clean up in the hallway were gone. She even smelled coffee. Mostly following the smell, she headed towards the kitchen and found the (slightly battered) sunflowers and roses in a tall, plastic cup with a note taped to it.

The writing on the note was large, untidy, and to Roxanne, incredibly impressive. She knew it had to be the Brain Bot's writing, but last time Megamind had talked about the Bots he said he was nowhere near that level of coordination. _I'm sorry about your vase,_ it read.

Beyond the flowers Roxanne saw her coffee pot already filled with her favorite morning brew, and before she knew it she was pouring the contents into her travel mug. She almost dropped the pot, however, when she saw the clock. How was it seven forty-five?! She was due in at work in fifteen minutes for her first reports of the day, and she wasn't even dressed!

She hurriedly snapped the lid on her mug and abandoned it on the counter, hobbling as quickly as she could back to her bedroom. She pulled out her smart-looking black and white dress (mostly chosen so she wouldn't have to take the time to match two pieces of clothing together) and threw it on. She dug through her closet in a near-panic, finally coming up with the flats she needed. She took her time in slipping her shoe on the right foot, but quickly resumed scrambling around as soon as that was done. She ran as fast as she could manage into the kitchen and out the door, barely remembering to grab her coffee and her purse. Her communication watch that Megamind had given her, however, lay forgotten on her nightstand, despite her promise to him the night before to wear it.

Roxanne impatiently rode the elevator down to the first floor, mumbled a good morning to her doorman Carlos, and hurried out to the sidewalk where her bug was parked and waiting for her. She shoved the keys into the ignition and twisted them forward, but all she received in response was a feeble whine.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," she growled, trying again. The Volkswagen again whined for a moment, then fell silent.

Roxanne pressed her head against the back of her seat, gripping the steering wheel hard. She clamped her eyes shut and said to her car, "I'm giving you one last chance to stop me from hating you for the rest of my life," and twisted the keys again.

In return, the car didn't even bother whining at her. It just sat where it was parked on the curb, unmoving and uncaring.

Roxanne grit her teeth, fighting every urge in her body that was telling her to scream.

She eventually let out a long, low breath that she didn't know she had been holding. She ran her hand through her hair and began to laugh. It was a small, disbelieving laugh at first, but it soon grew loud and rather hysterical.

She stopped laughing as quickly as she had started. "This is just great," she grumbled, her anger rushing back to her with full force. She snatched her purse and her coffee mug from the seat beside her and the console respectively, and threw open the car door. "Today of _all days_ ," she continued, standing up awkwardly due to the pain in her right foot, "you're going to do this to me!" She slammed the car door forcefully, and very seriously considered kicking the car. Thinking of her foot and thus settling for sending it a killer glare, she set off down the sidewalk and began digging through her purse for her phone as she went.

She shivered as she pulled it out of the depths of her purse, rounding the first corner and regretting not taking the time to get her winter coat out of the closet. Roxanne struggled to focus both on her phone and the onslaught of people using the sidewalk; her apartment was just off a main downtown street, and right now seemed to be the middle of rush hour for pedestrians. She pulled up her boss' information as quickly as she could, stabbing the 'call' button as soon as she'd found it.

Roxanne hadn't even been holding the phone up to her ear for a full ring yet when Rob answered. He didn't waste a second to start interrogating her, either.

"Roxanne! Where are you? You're on in seven minutes!" Rob whisper-shouted into her ear.

"I know that, Rob. I'm sorry. But on top of other things my car won't start." Someone tapped Roxanne on the shoulder. Startled, she whirled around to find a person in a suit coat already holding a recording device in her face while a few others stared at them before continuing to walk on. Well aware of the press' persistence, she waved him off and hoped for the best while she turned her self back around and continued talking. "I'm walking in your direction now, and as soon as this phone call is over I'm calling someone to see if I can get a ride," she fought her voice to stay calm as her foot throbbed with every step she took.

Simultaneously, Rob posed another question, "And that's supposed to help me get the morning news report done how?", and the man in the suit coat caught up to Roxanne and stepped in front of her. Paying closer attention this time, Roxanne recognized him as Jeremy, another investigative reporter she'd worked alongside a couple of times in the past. Jeremy still held the recorder in her face and mouthed _quick question_?

Roxanne huffed and ran her spare hand through her hair. "I don't know, Rob, but it's all I've got. Don't you have extras there for exactly this reason?" She covered the mouthpiece of her phone and responded to Jeremy. "What do you want?"

Rob babbled on in her ear about the extras not bringing in as many viewers as Roxanne, but she wasn't listening. Jeremy's question completely caught her off guard: "Is it true that Megamind, your fiance, set off a bomb at a popular dining establishment last night?"

Roxanne's mouth gaped at the question, and most people around them slowed to a halt at the sound of it. She floundered for an answer, and her numb mind wasn't helped by the aching pain in her foot or the small crowd around them beginning to pull out smartphones and video her response.

"Countless people are waiting to hear from the 'hero' himself, but seeing as he hasn't shown himself since the attack, you're the closest thing we as the people have at the moment," Jeremy continued, pressing the recorder within a couple inches of her face. "You know that one of the civilians that was hospitalized last night passed away this morning, don't you?" His face contorted into an odd shape, like he was becoming angry at her.

"The young man that passed on was my friend's son!" an African-American woman called out from behind the smartphone she had raised high. Roxanne turned to face her, still bewildered, and saw that she was crying. The woman held Roxanne's gaze angrily.

"Well? What do you have to say?" Jeremy prodded.

Roxanne reached lowered her phone with Rob still panicking on the other end and reached her other hand towards the woman, gently resting it on her arm and returning her fierce gaze.

"I am so incredibly sorry for your loss," she started, with a volume that if it hadn't been for the several recording devices within two feet of her, the exchange would've only been loud enough for Roxanne and the other woman to hear. Retracting her hand and turning to face Jeremy and the other members of the crowd, she continued, "But I am appalled that the question of Megamind's innocence would even be raised. He's done nothing but defend us as citizens-"

"For the last year and a half, maybe," Jeremy interrupted, the crowd growing every moment. "But before then, as we all remember, he was the one attacking us at every turn." Murmurs of agreement rippled through the group of people assembled on every side of the two of them. "And we can't just disregard the word of Officer Jameson, who was on the scene. He said he saw Megamind concealing something on his person before he even attempted to help any victims."

Roxanne's stomach sank. So the officer from last night had gone to the press. "I don't know what this officer saw, but I hardly think that one man's word is enough to discredit all the good Megamind has done for Metro City," She insisted.

Roxanne instantly knew that statement was a mistake. The crowd all but rioted around her, and she was bombarded with questions from every angle.

"So you're choosing to discredit the word of an honorable officer, then?" Jeremy's arm was shoved away from her face by an advancing man.

"Why should I believe you're not just standing up for your lover?" Cried a frantic woman, who in pushing through the crowd around her caused Roxanne's phone to be knocked out of her hand.

"How can you say that like you don't care about anything that's happened?" Screeched the African-American woman again, furiously invading Roxanne's space and accidentally stomping on Roxanne's bad foot.

Roxanne yelped in pain, the only effective method of getting the crowd to calm down that worked so far. It didn't last long, however.

"Are you hurt?"

"What happened?"

"Did Megamind hurt you?"

"STOP!" Two voices cried at once, causing Roxanne to look up. She saw two men on either side of her, using their arms to back up the crowd as much as they could.

"Leave the woman alone!" the man on her left yelled while the man on her right stooped beside her and picked up her phone and the battery that had popped out of it. The other man continued to lecture the people around them, but as the man who now had her phone returned it to her, she noticed a rather large, sleek watch on his wrist. Instead of taking her phone back immediately, Roxanne looked up at the man's face. She was met with a toothy grin, and big, brown eyes that winked at her.

Roxanne smiled amid the confusion and took her phone from Minion's hand. Minion used one hand to hang on to Roxanne's arm and the other to push their way out of the crowd. They hurried around the corner where Minion opened a car door for her seemingly out of thin air, and Roxanne climbed in to the backseat of the invisible car with no questions asked, desperate to get off her foot. Minion was soon in the driver's seat, and by the time he had adjusted his holowatch to reveal his true form, Megamind climbed into the backseat on the other side of the car.

Megamind quickly twisted his own watch, his real form looking as frazzled as his disguise. He sent a look to Minion via the rear view mirror, and as Minion began to drive towards Roxanne's work, Megamind turned to face her.

"Why were you walking?" Megamind asked her, looking slightly bewildered. "My Brain Bot said you hurt your foot!" 

"Trust me, I didn't want to be walking," she muttered, gently rubbing the sole of her foot through her shoe and the bandage. "My car wouldn't start." She looked back up at him, who, to her surprise, was still looking very confused. He opened his mouth as though to ask another question, but his eyes flicked down to her wrists and he closed it again as his brow furrowed.

"Where is your communication watch?"

Roxanne's eyebrows shot up as she realized her forgotten promise. "Megamind, I'm so sorry. This morning got away from me with the surprise of the broken glass and I completely forgot," she felt her face reddening as she spoke.

Megamind reached into his pocket and fished out a spare communication watch, opened its face to reveal wiring and micro chips, and adjusted some wiring before closing it and handing it to her. "This will call me and the Brain Bots now."

Roxanne took it from him, still upset. "I'm sorry, Megamind," she said, looking back at his eyes.

"It's okay," he responded, brow still furrowed.

"No, it's not," she replied, resting a hand on his knee. "I made a promise and then I screwed it up. I know that this was important to you. I'm sorry."

Megamind smiled at her hand, and then turned to face her. "I forgive you," he said softly, leaning forward and kissing her forehead lightly. "Just be safe today," he continued as they pulled up to the skyscraper where Roxanne worked. "Call me if anything happens."

"I will," she said, and added with another apologetic look, "Promise." She gave him a quick peck and opened up her door.

"Stay off that foot," he called as she shut the car door and limped to the entrance of the building, quickly vanishing inside.

Megamind's brow soon re-furrowed as he pulled out a laptop from under the seat and opened it up, entering a search for the latest news articles concerning himself and the attack last night.

"Where to, Sir?" Minion asked, chipper despite the circumstances.

"The Scott's museum, Minion," Megamind answered. "We have work to do."


	5. Chapter 4

Megamind didn't even need to open up any of the articles he was seeing on the screen of his laptop; the headlines were enough.

' _Police Officer or "Superhero": Who's Lying?_ '

' _Convicted Criminal at it Again?_ '

' _Hero or Facade: Are We Really Safe?_ '

Megamind's typically whirring thoughts slowed to a halt. He scrolled and scrolled, hoping to find something positive - but his disappointed heart grew heavier with each appearing headline. What had he been doing wrong? His thoughts began to pick up speed again, mulling over everything he was taking in. He worked to keep them safe, to gain their trust truthfully, to correct the wrongs he'd committed before. He put his heart into everything he did, or, at least, he tried to. It had to shine through at least some, because Roxanne had commented on noticing it before. Did they not see it? Was she too biased to see what other people saw? Was this really what the rest of the city thought of him, despite everything? Would he ever be able to overcome such a powerful belief?

 _Enough_. Megamind slammed the laptop shut and buried his head in his hands. Despite what most people seemed to think, Megamind's hyper-intelligent brain came with disadvantages, some of them rather severe. It was moments like these when he begged his mind to stop spinning, stop analyzing, just _stop_ \- but it rarely complied. It preferred to stop in its tracks during inopportune moments, particularly when Roxanne so much as met his gaze. But not right now. No, now it just worried and thought and spun and _spun_ and -

"Sir?" Minion said nervously.

"Hm?" Megamind lifted his head wearily, looking at his friend in the rear view mirror.

"…We're here," Minion said with a glance out the window.

Megamind followed his gaze and was met with the mansion the Scotts had built for themselves years ago, complete with official city signs and security camera everywhere. "Right, right… I'm sorry, Minion, I…" Megamind looked back at the fish, who had worry written all over his face. He quickly changed his mind; Minion didn't need to hear about what was bothering him. Not right now, anyways.

"Code: check and make sure that those cameras aren't active," Megamind said brightly, with the most convincing smile he could muster.

Immediately Minion perked up. "Code: right away, Sir!"

Megamind's faked, wide smile melted into a soft, real one as Minion went to work at the computer in the dashboard of the car. Megamind opened up his laptop again, intending to pull up the live broadcast page from Roxanne's work, but was again met with the list of articles bashing his name. Before he could close the wretched page, however, it refreshed, and a new article popped up at the top of the screen. A new article by none other than Roxanne's office, Megamind was quick to notice. His smile grew as he read the title:

' _Facts Don't Lie: Megamind's Impact as the Loyal Defender of Metro City_ '

He decided against closing the tab, hoping he would have time to read it later. Instead he opened a new page and pulled up KMCP's website, and muscle memory took him to the broadcast stream in seconds.

"It looks like the outdoor cameras are operational, Sir, but curiously enough, the interior ones are not," Minion announced, still studying the results of the scan on the screen in front of him.

"Is there a back door they don't keep an eye on?" Megamind asked, not looking up from his screen. The broadcast wasn't going yet, but the website was detailing where Roxanne would be reporting from and when she would be on air.

"Just one second… and… yes! Remember that old staff entrance to the kitchen we used to sneak in? That's only got one camera covering it," Minion answered. "Shall I disable it, Sir?"

"Go ahead," Megamind replied, having closed his laptop. He tucked it into his backpack and looked up, expecting to see Minion still operating the computer, but instead was met with him reaching for the door handle, forget-me-stick in hand.

"Minion!" Megamind cried.

Minion whirled around, visibly confused. "Yes, Sir?"

Megamind returned the sentiment. " _What_ are you doing?"

"…Disabling the problematic camera…?" Minion said. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

Megamind clenched his eyes shut and rubbed his temples in disbelief. "Minion, we _talked_ about this." Megamind opened his eyes, and sighed heavily when Minion's face showed no sign that he was catching Megamind's drift. "The computer will do that for you, remember? I've even refined it, so now you'll only have to tell it to kill the one camera,"

"Oh!" Minion exclaimed, finally releasing the door handle and putting the forget-me-stick back under the passenger seat. "You're completely right, Sir. I don't appear to be keeping up with the new functions you've been installing into the car very well," he said with a chuckle, and returned to typing away, instructing the system on which camera to target.

Megamind rolled his eyes and pulled the backpack on to his shoulder. He looked back out the window at the mansion before him, realizing a flaw in their plan. "Minion, drive us around to the back driveway," he instructed.

"May I ask why, Sir?"

"So we're not trudging through the snow and leaving footprints all over the place," Megamind stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ah! Right away," Minion complied, taking them around to the back.

Once there, Megamind climbed out of the car cautiously, backpack slung over his shoulder. His strikingly green eyes roved back and forth, searching for the blind spot of the cameras, making sure he wasn't seen at any given moment. Minion followed him after gathering his own bag out of the car, having been on enough missions with his friend to know that now was the time to just be quiet and follow.

They followed the small path from the driveway around the corner to the door that Minion had described, inching their way over. Once there, Megamind stepped aside and allowed Minion to use one of his more recent suit upgrades to effortlessly pick the lock on the door.

The door swung open and revealed not the kitchen they were used to, but a dark and disheveled storage room. Megamind ventured in slowly while Minion checked to make sure no one was watching and entered as well, shutting the door behind them.

After kicking at least three undefinable objects that had been strewn on the floor and nearly falling over more times than he'd like to admit, Megamind's groping was rewarded as he finally found the string to turn on the light.

"You'd think they'd have kept this place up… better…"

As Megamind turned on the light, his words trailed off, and it became clear that the place was a mess not due to lack of upkeep, but someone rifling through it. Boxes were on their sides, the contents of them spilled everywhere, shelves had been pushed aside, and some of the things on the floor had been crushed.

Minion stared at Megamind, anxious for some kind of a reaction out of him. Megamind stared at the disaster around him in disbelief. He stooped to pick up a trampled, disfigured metal device next to his foot and tried to make out what it used to be. All he could really tell, however, was that it used to be his; the electric blue paint was actively chipping off in his hands.

"…Okay," Megamind started, setting down the device on the nearest shelf, "At least we have our work cut out for us, right?" he finished, looking over at Minion for reassurance.

Minion, however, still looked bewildered.

"Think of it like this…" Megamind said, trying to find something around the room to make Minion feel better. He quickly realized, however, that the room was completely unable to be sugar-coated. It was a complete mess. He turned back to Minion, who was treading water anxiously, awaiting the conclusion to Megamind's sentence. "…The rest of the place can't be any worse, right?" Megamind grimaced at his own words.

"…Right…" Minion hesitantly agreed, beginning to find a way to work his bulky frame through the clutter, catching up to where Megamind stood. Megamind took the hint and began to lead the two of them out of the room as best he could; the storage room was eerie after being rummaged through so badly, and both were ready to move on. Perhaps they'd come back later in search of clues, but at the moment a bigger room with some windows sounded lovely.

They spent a solid five minutes making their way to the door. Slowly, they came closer and closer to the door, and after pausing to let Minion's suit pick the lock again, they entered the main part of the museum in a minor hallway off of the main hall with the exhibits. To their right, there was a wide doorway with no door on it leading into the next in the line of exhibits to see, and ahead of them down the long, narrow hallway was dark wooden cases with old documents framed and on display.

"Go on ahead of me, Minion," Megamind instructed, already looking for an outlet behind the displays.

Minion disappeared around the corner into the main exhibit, leaving Megamind to his task. As he looked around more closely, he realized he was in the hallway between the two wings of exhibits. It was once the servants' hallway, running behind the central ballroom/grand foyer that was now the reception hall for guests. The east wing, the one farther away from the end of the house where Megamind and Minion were now, was the part of the exhibit that focused on battles that occurred pre-appearance of aliens in the city. Megamind and Roxanne agreed that it would be far more interesting and even education if they included political battles, gang fights, and issues that the police force faced. But, instead, they turned to grasping for 'facts' about 'historical' battles, and eventually the museum had to close.

 _Aha_! Megamind thought, very much like he used to as a supervillain. Peering around a rather large display case he found the outlet he'd been looking for. He glanced behind him towards the doorway Minion had gone through, and even though he recognized immediately that the screen would not be visible in the next room, he settled for it. The sound would be loud enough for him to at least hear his fiancée, he knew, and it was the only electrical outlet he could find.

A few minutes later, after making use of his unusually thin arms and thus being able to reach the charger cord from the computer to the outlet, his laptop was settled on top of the wood and glass paneled case, on and waiting to stream Roxanne's broadcast in 10… 9… 8…

"Sir?" Minion called, a mild panic rising in his voice.

"Yes, Minion?" Megamind called back, slightly agitated. Was it too much to ask that he make sure Roxanne made it to the broadcast site okay?

"…I think you need to come here,"

Megamind sighed and stood up. "Just a moment, Minion." A few seconds later, Roxanne's chipper smile appeared on the screen, accompanied by her cheery "Good morning, Metro City!" Megamind smiled softly, made sure the volume was sufficiently turned up, and followed in Minion's footsteps into the next room.

As soon as Megamind rounded the corner and looked up, his jaw dropped. He had been so set on finding an outlet earlier that he failed to notice the shattered glass from the display cases that was everywhere. But more shocking was the red string that was running from case to case. His eyes swept over the wreck of a space, and eventually they found Minion on his right, standing awkwardly next to a case with his hand caught up in several of the strings. He gave Megamind an apologetic grimace, and Megamind came over to him at once to figure out what had happened.

"Several of the strings ended here; I just wanted to see what it was," Minion explained hurriedly. "I have scissors in my bag, if you'd like."

Megamind looked up at him from where he had been staring at the mess Minion's hand was caught in. "The whole place is like this?"

"As far as I saw, yes," Minion said hesitantly.

Megamind turned his attention back to the tangle of red around Minion's robotic hand, still shocked. After several minutes of Megamind working with the strings and arguing with Minion over how he was instructed to move his hand, they had him free, and once again Roxanne's voice delivering the morning report was the only sound to be heard.

Megamind began inching his way through the maze of strings, trying to see around the corner to the left of them. The exhibits continued over there, and so did most of the strings…

"It's an article about you, Sir," Minion announced.

Megamind turned back to face Minion, who was peering into the display case he'd been caught in, hands folded behind his back.

"As a matter of fact, it's about you and what you did just after Metro Man disappeared."

Megamind's brow furrowed. "Why would they include that? There was no fighting there." He scoffed. "No one contested me."

"A fair question, but perhaps better yet - why would the impostor think it so important? Whatever system there is to these threads, there are five - no, six - over here notating its importance," Minion rambled, treading water in his tank and eventually swimming around to look at Megamind.

"Good point, good point…," Megamind trailed off as his eyes wandered to the corner blocking his view again. There had to be at least twenty strings pulled taught between their origin points and the wall forming the corner. "But what really interests me is what all of those are leading to,"

"Shall I work in here, then, Sir, and you follow your lead?"

"You brought your camera, right?" Megamind said, craning his neck and trying not to bend too far as to fall over the strings.

"Of course! It's in my bag, which is… somewhere," Minion replied, looking around for his bag.

"Then yes, please, start documenting everything you can with it. Try not to disturb anything," Megamind directed before turning back to his friend. "And maybe hand me my notebook and pen from my bag?"

Minion hurried to Megamind's bag that had been left abandoned in the hall with his laptop and brought back the requested items as quickly as he could.

Notebook and accompanying stationary in hand, Megamind picked his way over and under and in between strings, finally making it into the relative openness of the corner, where he caught a breath - and the view he'd been hoping for. The strings that turned harshly with the wall converged at the same point, which was on the floor, surprisingly, along with several other threads beginning at displays past the turn.

Megamind flipped open to a new page in the notebook and began sketching an aerial map of the hall they were in. He labeled the display cases on his map with a numbering system as well as what was contained in them, with help from Minion in the form of him calling out what he could tell was in the cases near him. Then he drew the path that the strings followed from one case to another, as accurately as he could from his vantage point. His page was rather muddled with thick and thin lines and the occasional scribbling out of a mistake when he was done, but he would need it to tie the pictures together later.

Soon enough, Minion was done taking pictures of his side of the room, and slid the camera underneath the strings to Megamind (they agreed that after the incident with his hand, they weren't going to try to get him to walk through the maze). Minion started noting anomalies in the room, besides the obvious evidence of breaking and entering and the strings strung everywhere, of course, while Megamind worked his way through the strings even slower than before, photographing all the time.

He eventually made it about halfway down the hall, where the spot on the floor was that hosted the convergence of the strings was. It was in the most open part of the room, where cases had not been placed to make room for the wall to be used as a projector screen. Megamind stepped over and around the dozens of threads and knelt by what the strings had been pointing to - a mess of pictures on the floor. Some were framed, some were newspaper clippings, some from magazines, and others were printouts; but there Megamind stood, featured in every one of them.

Megamind's eyes roved over the countless pictures, trying to make sense of anything he'd seen since arriving at the museum. What was motivating whoever this was to do all of this? Impersonating him to frame him for crimes, breaking into museums, plotting _something_ with a cryptic system - what was he supposed to make of it all?

After trudging along and finishing his task of taking pictures, he returned to the open space just before the turn. He picked up his notebook and made corrections and alterations to what he thought he'd seen, and was just beginning to re-do the map so it was cleaner when Minion interrupted his train of thought.

"Do you know shorthand?"

Megamind looked up from his work. "What?"

"Do you know shorthand?" Minion repeated. "It's the abbreviated form of English that Miss Ritchi uses for her notes."

"Yes, I _know_ what it is," Megamind retorted, "But I can read very little. Haven't gotten around to learning it yet. Why?"

Minion gave him a questioning look. "Haven't you seen the notes on the display cases? They're all written in the same fashion," he replied, using his far-reaching arms to hand Megamind a note he'd found on one of the first display cases.

Megamind took it from Minion and saw for himself; it was, indeed, shorthand. The culprit was writing very quickly, with rather messy handwriting. Not that Megamind was one to talk - Roxanne got on him about his illegible experiment notes all the time. But it was bad enough that Megamind was impressed Minion had been able to ID it as shorthand.

Megamind looked over at the fish, who had pulled out his own laptop and was typing furiously with several more of the notes stuck up on the edges of his screen. Megamind froze for a moment, however, as he realized that he couldn't hear Roxanne. After a moment, Minion got to a break in his typing, and Megamind was able to faintly hear her introducing a new interviewee. He exhaled sharply, not realizing he had been holding his breath. Why did this have him so psyched out, he wondered? He was the target, not her. They won't touch her, right? _Right_?

Megamind shook his head to clear the thought from his mind, and started stepping and ducking around the strings back in Minion's direction. "Can you read shorthand, Minion?"

"I myself can't read or write it, but I've found a handy website that allows you to translate it rather easily," Minion chimed happily. His brow furrowed, however, and he turned to face Megamind. "Their messages are still cryptic, however, and not always the most… encouraging," he said apologetically.

"What do they say?" Megamind asked, wary now.

"There are several to choose from…" Minion said, looking over his screen and obviously stalling. "Well, some of the vaguer notes involve phrases like 'This could work' or 'Wonder if I could pull this off'," he continued.

"And the worse ones?" Megaming pressed, stepping out of the strings now and coming alongside Minion.

Minion, however, didn't read anymore. Instead, he stepped aside and let Megamind read for himself.

' _Use this as bait: the media will turn_ '

' _More proof - find what's needed in supply closet'_

"Have you been marking down were these came from?" Megamind asked, continuing to read with a more and more concerned expression.

"Yes, Sir, it's written there on each note, along with the order that I put them into the computer."

Megamind, however, wasn't listening to the answer to his question. One of the last quotes from the scraps of paper had caught his eye.

' _First a bomb, then maybe we'll go with a rogue robot. It's something he'd do_ '

"Robot? Minion, did you see this?" Megamind questioned, trying not to panic. "What do you think-"

Megamind never finished his last question, because in the middle of her closing remarks for the broadcast, Roxanne screamed.


End file.
